Mike Stephen gets an update on the secrecy around a plan to buy back the city’s parking meters from Block Club Chicago’s Mick Dumke and learns about a new series of live local performances that explore the history of the Untied States from co-producers Cheryl Corley and Lucy Smith. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our Apple Podcasts Page, Spotify, or our RSS feed.

We go inside the Joy Tea mobile trailer outside of Keystone Park in River Forest. (Photo credit: Mike Stephen/WGN Radio)

Mike Stephen talks the art of tea with Max Blessen, owner of Chicagoland’s Joy Tea, gets an update on civil rights history in Illinois, and discovers the Secret History of the versatile musician from Chicago Billy Hinton. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our Apple Podcasts Page, Spotify, or our RSS feed.

We learn about the incredible story of a Nazi prison guard who worked at a Chicagoland high school for decades. (Photo credit: Mike Stephen/WGN Radio)

Mike Stephen sits down with Lake Forest High School history teacher Michael Soffer to discuss his new book Our Nazi: An American Suburb’s Encounter with Evil, which tells the story of how a WWII Nazi ended up as a high school custodian in suburban Chicago. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our Apple Podcasts Page, Spotify, or our RSS feed.

What happened to the newsracks downtown? (Photo credit: Mike Stephen/WGN Radio)

Mike Stephen learns about the disappearance of downtown newspaper racks from Brian Hieggelke, editor and publisher of Newcity and the chair of the Chicago Newsracks Task Force, and then talks to Illinois Humanities executive director Gabrielle Lyon and author Ayana Contreras to get a preview of an event that celebrates local fashion history called Chicago Style. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our Apple Podcasts Page, Spotify, or our RSS feed.